Category Archives: Employment

Why people risk insecure work

Posted on July 18, 2023 by Paul Evans

An interesting report from The Work Foundation (via Lancaster University) has just landed. Published in partnership with Unison, it looks at the choices and experiences of those in insecure work, and the kinds of interventions that could support them into … Continue reading →

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The Broadcast Indie Survey 2023

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Paul Evans

The Broadcast Indie Survey 2023 is out [£] and I’ve given it a quick scan. Here are the highlights: Fragile confidence I you had to sum up the industry’s future outlook based on Broadcast Magazine’s 2023 Indie Survey in one … Continue reading →

Posted in BBC, Employment, Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, High End TV data, Low budget productions, Post-production, Public Service Broadcasting, Skills & capacity, UK studios | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Unexpected rise in self-assessed tax receipts

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Paul Evans

Public sector finances are looking unexpectedly rosy following better-than-expected tax receipts. As the FT reports… “Jeremy Hunt has received an unexpected £30bn windfall in the public finances ahead of his March Budget, giving the chancellor scope to provide extra support … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, Employment status, Freelance working, Freelancer rights, IR35, Tax | Tagged | Leave a comment

Four day week trial

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Paul Evans

The BBC are reporting on a UK-wide six-month trial, testing the costs and benefits of a four-day week on full pay, across a wide range of different firms. The trial was conducted between June and December 2022, organised by 4 … Continue reading →

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TUC update on insecure work

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Paul Evans

The TUC have published a report on the economy’s increased reliance upon insecure work (there are 500,000+ more insecure workers now than there were in 2016), calling for “Government inaction has left 3.7 million people in insecure work. Despite the … Continue reading →

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Professionally Made, Professionally Paid – Equity campaign

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Paul Evans

Just a quick bookmark for an excellent bit of campaigns literature from Bectu’s sister union Equity – Professionally Made, Professionally Paid – an important part of the steps unions are taking to promote a professional attitude to the arts against … Continue reading →

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Inflation update (spoiler alert: it’s not good news)

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Paul Evans

Towards the end of last year, economic forecasters could safely have been described as ‘alarmed’ by inflation figures. I don’t post on this every month (the last real mention was here) and I was briefing members towards the end of … Continue reading →

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What do employers need to do to retain talent?

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Paul Evans

It’s something of a recurring theme from the Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), but all of the research (including their own work with Autonomy and Survation – [pdf]) point to a need to pay people better, treat them with … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, Employment Law and Rights, Long hours, Low pay, Management, Mental Health, Productivity, Wellbeing, Work-life balance | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why ‘the freelance deal’ is a big deal – and not just for the workers concerned.

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Paul Evans

There’s a long read on this site about the ‘contingent production army’ that manages large parts of the entertainment industry. Thinking about this issue, and processing it has allowed me to get a clearer idea of what our grievances are … Continue reading →

Posted in Bullying and Harassment, Disability equality, Employment, Employment Law and Rights, Employment status, Equality, Freelance working, Freelancer rights, Gender equality, Gig economy workers, Health & Safety, IR35, Long hours, Management, Mental Health, National Insurance Contributions (NICs), Occupational Health, Personal Service Companies, Productivity, Race equality, Tax, Theatre and Live Events data | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Surprising-yet-unsurprising news about people thinking of leaving their jobs

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Paul Evans

The most surprising-yet-unsurprising nugget here is that “…the majority of those considering quitting had been offered no incentives to stay by their employers.” 📰📰NEW STUDY: How to Solve the Labour Market Crisis by Raising Standards Labour shortages are a principal … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, Inflation, Long hours, Low pay, Mental Health, Pay & inflation, The working environment, Wellbeing, Work-life balance | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Budget statement – quick reaction

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Paul Evans

Here’s a quick reaction to today’s Budget statement from Rishi Sunak. As ever, it’s worth waiting for a lot of this to be digested by economists and a range of more detailed briefings will be available in a few hours. … Continue reading →

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Flexible working – Arup explore the seven-day week

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Paul Evans

From Arup’s website: “Arup, the employee-owned global engineering and design firm, has today announced it is adopting an innovative hybrid model – known as Work Unbound – that will give its 15,500 employees, known as members, greater flexibility in deciding … Continue reading →

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What is happening to self-employment in the UK

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Paul Evans

The tl;dr answer is that it’s too early to tell. As mentioned previously here, there’s a lot of job-switching going on, and there is a generally tight labour market in the UK (and globally, though the UK has the added spice … Continue reading →

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There’s a lot of job-switching going on

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Paul Evans

Following on from two posts here this morning about inflation/pay, and the tight labour market, here’s a third on the trinity of issues that are creating a fair wind for union-type demands at the moment. Sarah O’Connor in the FT … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, Low pay, Pay & inflation, Productivity, Wages and Pay-rates | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Got a pay claim coming up? Want advice on inflation, and stuff like that?

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Paul Evans

If you have a pay claim coming up and want advice on inflation, and stuff like that…. good luck! Firstly, the official, current inflation figures have not been as flimsy a guide as they are at the moment for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, EU & Brexit, Inflation, Pay & inflation, Productivity, Skills & capacity | Tagged | 3 Comments

“The tightest labour market in modern times”

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Paul Evans

This Twitter thread (below) is really worth a careful read for everyone who wants to understand the current state of the labour market. Firstly, the fears about mass redundancies at the end of furlough are just not materialising – if … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, Productivity | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

VAT gradually returning to normal rates

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Paul Evans

Since July 2020, there has been a reduced rate of VAT (5%, and not the normal 20%) charged on transactions in the leisure and hospitality sectors (which includes theatres and live events – a list of who it applies to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, EU & Brexit, Inflation, Theatre and Live Events data, VAT | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Positive working environment “will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line.”

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Paul Evans

Those bug-eyed Marxist fanatics over at the Harvard Business Review are making the case against aggressive management practices again: “…a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to … Continue reading →

Posted in Bullying and Harassment, Employment, Employment Law and Rights, Long hours, Mental Health, Productivity, Wellbeing, Workplace conflict, Workplaces | Leave a comment

Right to request flexible working to become a ‘day one right’?

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Paul Evans

The BBC are reporting that the right to request flexible working (currently something that employees have a statutory right to request after six months) can be requested on day one – when they start a new job. Employers would also … Continue reading →

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Arts, entertainment and recreation 18.8% below its pre-covid levels

Posted on September 16, 2021 by Paul Evans

The ONS monthly estimate for July shows that the UKs Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by only 0.1% in July and is still 2.1% below its pre-pandemic level. Most of the growth was in production output (up 1.2%) while construction … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus, Economics, Employment, Film & TV industry data, Productivity, Theatre and Live Events data | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Continuous working week, shift work, working from home… some links.

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Paul Evans

From the FT [£]: “The decline of the “9 to 5” has been under way for decades. In 2010-11, 20 per cent of employees in the US worked more than half their hours outside the standard hours of 6am to … Continue reading →

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Freelancers – ‘the canary in the coalmine’

Posted on September 9, 2021 by Paul Evans

From earlier this year, a useful roundup from The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (NESTA) of the policy issues governments need to bear in mind when thinking about creative freelancers. Their understanding of Creative Freelancers is as follows: The … Continue reading →

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Labour shortages and productivity

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Paul Evans

Will labour shortages have a positive impact on the economy? I’d argue that they will as employers will stop building business models based on sweating unproductive low-skilled workers and instead on tech innovation. Martin Sandbu [£] agrees. But what is … Continue reading →

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Post-pandemic working foregrounds poor management and outdated hierarchies

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Paul Evans

A couple of  pieces from the FT recently highlighting the spotlight that has fallen on the quality of management in the UK. The first one [£] takes ministers to task for their (possibly unfounded, or even downright wrong) complaints about … Continue reading →

Posted in Diversity of representation, Employment, Equality, Gender pay, Gender representation, Management, Productivity, Race equality | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Labour shortages increase potential industrial muscle for workers

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Paul Evans

Today’s FT is full of news about how labour shortages are hitting the economy in numerous ways as a result of multiple market failures [£] which includes the pandemic, the pingdemic, market failure but obviously, we can’t add brexit to … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus, Economics, Employment, EU & Brexit, Gig economy workers, Inflation, IR35, Migration & working abroad, Pay & inflation, Productivity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Jobs growth fueling interest rate changes?

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Paul Evans

Useful info in here [£] about the current state of the jobs market. How the hot UK labour market is driving interest rate forecasts https://t.co/xIehn9Av73 — Financial Times (@FT) August 11, 2021

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Creative industries employment statistics

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Paul Evans

More stats reports (two in one day!!) …. the Creative Industries Council publishes information on employment in the creative sectors. This, published in March 2021, says… “With an estimated 2,040,000 jobs – 75 per cent of them outside London – … Continue reading →

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Economic insight into the UK creative industries

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Paul Evans

On the 21st July, the Creative Industries Federation (a membership body which represents, champions and supports the UK’s creative industries) published a report commissioned from Oxford Economics entitled ‘Developing economic insight into the creative industries’. As this is an economic … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, EU & Brexit, Factual & Entertainment sector data, Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, High End TV data, Productivity, Skills & capacity | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Lower pay in the performing arts

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Paul Evans

One of the biggest factors adversely affecting diversity in the cultural sector is low pay at the entry level – effectively excluding entrants on lower incomes. 🎭Those in the performing and creative arts face the lowest salaries after graduating. 📉They … Continue reading →

Posted in Diversity of representation, Economics, Employment, Low pay, Race equality, Wages and Pay-rates, Wealth inequality | Tagged | Leave a comment

BBC & Channel 4’s contribution to the UK economy

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Paul Evans

Channel 4 recently published a study by Ernst and Young of the Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy [pdf]  from their activity. This report focuses on the contribution to the Nations and Regions of the UK and concludes … Continue reading →

Posted in BBC, Economics, Employment, Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, Productivity, Public Service Broadcasting | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

TUC insecure work report

Posted on July 15, 2021 by Paul Evans

The TUC have published a special edition of their Jobs and Recovery monitor,and this time it’s focussed on Insecure Work [PDF]. From the exec summary… The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the reality of insecure work in the UK. Care workers, … Continue reading →

Posted in Employment, Employment Contracts, Employment Law and Rights, Employment status, Freelance working, Freelancer rights, Gig economy workers, Low pay, Welfare and benefits | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What the Wilson era can teach us.

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Paul Evans

Welcome to an era when a stronger welfare state was seen as a pre-condition for economic dynamism. When a robust social infrastructure helped workers take risk. New piece by me on why Harold Wilson’s forgotten agenda is relevant to the … Continue reading →

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“For most people, becoming self-employed is a bad idea.”

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Paul Evans

So said Danny Blanchflower (the economist, not the footballer) back in 2011. “…there is also little evidence that countries with higher self-employment rates are more successful on any outcome measure. The problem with self-employment is that failure rates are high … Continue reading →

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Is IR35 having a significant impact on self-employment?

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Paul Evans

More from The Resolution Foundation – two posts in one day! Rick has noticed a pronounced change. Lots to chew on in @resfoundation Labour Market Outlook. Overall employment rate down but an increase in full-time employees. Male self-employment seems to … Continue reading →

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Low-paid most likely to be unemployed when furlough ends.

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Paul Evans

Low-paid workers face the highest risk of losing their jobs when the UK government’s furlough scheme ends in September, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation.

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